SC upholds notification on registration fee
Shimla, September 22
The Supreme Court has upheld the notification of the state government prescribing registration fee on documents under the Registration Act. It was challenged by M/s Shivalik Agro Poly Products Limited more than three decades after it was issued.

Rs 118 cr for development of tribal areas
Shimla, September 22
The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, said Rs 118 crore had been earmarked under the tribal sub-plan for carrying development activities at an accelerated pace in the tribal areas during the current financial year.

Swedish trekker’s family to attend funeral
Shimla, September 22
Despite being retrieved after a gap of 22 years from the Kangla Jot glacier, the body of the Swedish trekker, Margot Lydia Aulikki Ryyananen, might not be able to reach her homeland for her last rites.

Police solves mystery of missing boy
Dharamsala, September 22
The district police claims to have solved the kidnapping case of a 10-year-old boy, Vivek, alias, Ankur, who had gone missing from his village Sagur, in Baijnath on August 20.

Cong to keep mum on Mankotia issue
Mandi, September 22
Though the Shapur Congress MLA and former Tourism Minister Major Vijai Singh Mankotia, is trying hard to gather support to launch his broadside against the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Congress high command is learnt to have directed all ministers and Congress leaders to keep “the Mankotia issue and his bogey of regionalism in deep freeze till the Guler byelection next month.

Decision on permit fee to be reviewed
Shimla, September 22
In a bid to pacify agitated private transporters, Mr G.S. Bali, Transport Minister, yesterday announced that the decision to increase permit fee and special permission fee would be reviewed and the entire taxation scheme remodelled.

HP to promote organic farming
Shimla, September 22
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between the state government and the Rural Research
Foundation (RRF), Jaipur, for Collaborative Study Programme on Organic farming.

20,000 take dip in Manimahesh Lake
Chamba, September 22
Around 20,000 persons, including devotees of Lord Shiva, and tourists from different parts of the country, had a dip in the icy waters of the famous Manimahesh Lake this morning.

Shimla, September 22
The Supreme Court has upheld the notification of the state government prescribing registration fee on documents under the Registration Act. It was challenged by M/s Shivalik Agro Poly Products Limited more than three decades after it was issued.

The company was charged a registration fee of Rs 27,760 for registering the mortgage deed in respect of their industrial units in accordance with the notification dated April 14, 1969.

It was allotted an industrial plot at Parwanoo by the Himachal Pradesh Housing Board for which two loans of Rs 30 lakh and Rs 27.76 lakh were sanctioned by the state Financial Corporation and Himachal Pradesh Mineral and Industrial Development Corporation, respectively.

It was required to mortgage and hypothecate the fixed assets of their leasehold rights in the industrial plot and the machinery installed therein in favour of the two corporations.

A deed of simple mortgage was required to be executed for the purpose and the company was required to pay registration charges amounting to Rs 27,760 in accordance with the notification.

However, it challenged the notification as ultra vires in the High Court, but the case was summarily dismissed on May 22, 1979, on the ground that the company and others had an equally efficacious alternative remedy of filing a civil suit wherein the validity of the notification could be challenged.

A suit was filed in the court of Senior Sub Judge, Solan. It was prayed that the notification be declared void and ultra vires. Refund of Rs 27,771, paid as registration fee on October 30,1978, was also sought.

The judge declared the notification null and void and also passed a decree for refunding Rs 27,771 to the plaintiffs. It was affirmed in appeals by the District Judge and the High Court.

The main ground on which the plaintiffs’ suit was decreed was that there was a distinction between tax and fee.

The state moved the apex court against the judgement and its appeal was allowed.

A Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr R.C. Lohati, Mr Justice G.P. Mathur and Mr Justice C.K. Thakker, held that there was no generic difference between a tax and a fee as both were compulsory exaction of money by public authorities.

The Supreme Court also held that the notification could not be struck down as the state governments had to maintain offices of sub-registrars in small sub-divisional towns and post staff, which had to be paid salaries.

Rules had been framed by various state governments laying down elaborate procedure for maintenance of books and registers wherein copies of registered documents had to be kept, it said.

This necessarily required trained manpower entailing expenditure in payment of salary. There was no material on record to show that the overall amount received by the government by way of fee from the registration department far exceeded the overall expenditure incurred in maintaining the said department, it added.

The notification issued by the state government could not be struck down merely by taking into consideration the registration fee paid by the plaintiffs and quantification of the value of service rendered to them.

The apex court also held that it was not possible for the state government to keep the realised fee in a separate fund other than the consolidated fund of the state.

Shimla, September 22
The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, said Rs 118 crore had been earmarked under the tribal sub-plan for carrying development activities at an accelerated pace in the tribal areas during the current financial year.

Addressing a public meeting at Kaza in Lahaul Spiti yesterday, Mr Virbhadra Singh said the funds under the tribal sub-plan were in addition to the regular funds being spent on various schemes by different departments. “Keeping in view the limited working season and additional development needs of the tribal areas, the government had diverted its attention towards speedy and time-bound development of the area,” he said.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said an independent department of languages, art and culture had been created for the area. “To preserve and popularise the gompas as religious destinations, a major attraction for foreign tourists, a Rs 7.23-crore Buddhist circuit programme was under implementation,” he said.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said the Spiti Valley had organised three Kalchakras during the past one decade. “The government has been providing liberal funds for promoting these places but the locals need to involve themselves in the tourism-related activities so that more tourists are attracted to the area,” he stressed. He added the government had provided Rs 2.35 crore for creating the necessary infrastructure at Kungri Gompa in the Pin Valley, where the Kalchakra teaching were given by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Chief Minister also advised the people of the Spiti Valley to go in for crop diversification in a big way so as to supplement their income.

He inaugurated a circuit house constructed at a cost of Rs 2.07 crore at
Kaza.

Shimla, September 22
Despite being retrieved after a gap of 22 years from the Kangla Jot glacier, the body of the Swedish trekker, Margot Lydia Aulikki Ryyananen, might not be able to reach her homeland for her last rites.

The Swedish Government today confirmed to the Ministry of External Affairs that since taking the body all the way to Sweden would be inconvenient, some of Margot’s family members would be arriving in Shimla in a day or two for her funeral.

Margot’s mother, who lives in Stockholm, had been intimated about the retrieval of the body from the glacier on September 16, by the Swedish Embassy.

“The Second Secretary in the Swedish Embassy, too has confirmed that her family members were on their way to Shimla so that she can be laid to rest,” confirmed Mr S.P. Kaushal, DIG (Crime). He added her funeral would be done within a day or two.

Meanwhile, the body of Margot, which had been lying at the mortuary at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) here, was shifted to the dead-house today. The body had been brought from the glacier to the IGMC on September 16 and with the state police still awaiting a reply from the Swedish Embassy, no decision had been taken about taking it to Sweden or burying her here.

After the body was spotted by a guide and a cook, accompanying trekkers on their way to Leh, a team from the Mountaineering Institute had retrieved the body. Margot is believed to have entered the Kangla Jot glacier in Lahaul Spiti after taking a trek from Leh side. Her mother had reported her being missing to the police in 1981. Some letters dated 1981, had been found on the body of Margot by the trekkers, who had first spotted her body.

Dharamsala, September 22
The district police claims to have solved the kidnapping case of a 10-year-old boy, Vivek, alias, Ankur, who had gone missing from his village Sagur, in Baijnath on August 20.

Starting its investigations with only a skull and some pieces of vertebra, the police was able to establish the identity of the boy and the way he had been allegedly murdered by his own juvenile cousin, who lived next door.

The case, which initially started as a possible abduction, eventually turned out to be the one of sodomy and murder. The 17-year-old accused had allegedly taken the victim to a nearby jungle and stabbed him for the fear of being caught.

Disclosing the details of the case here today, Superintendent of Police, Mr S. Zahur Haider Zaidi, said that since there was no flesh on the pieces of the skeleton found by the police on August 25, it was difficult to get to the root of the case. “But with valuable assistance from the Forensic Department of the Tanda Medical College, our special investigation team, headed by DSP (Headquarters) Oma Patti Jamwal, found that the remains were of a minor, who used to suck his thumb, as revealed from the shape of the teeth,” he said.

The parents later confirmed this. The report also said the boy had been stabbed in the neck and then hit on the back of the head with a blunt weapon. An underwear with blood stains on it further confirmed that the body was of Vivek.

“Along with the skull, the police also found a crude iron rod, used for grinding spices, from the spot. It, however, went missing the very next morning. The family of the accused had earlier reported to the police that the grinder, along with a pair of scissors, had been stolen,” he said.

But once the links were established, the accused was rounded up and he later told the police where he had hidden the grinder, after lifting it from the scene of the crime.

“The family still believes that their child was murdered out of vengeance but the intention of sodomy seems to be the real reason,” said Mr Zaidi.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference here today, the SP also denied that there had been a spate of incidents of child-lifting in the district. “Out of the total 19 cases reported in the past one year, two turned out to be criminal cases and except for one girl, all children were found later,” he said.

Giving details of each case, he said in most cases the children had gone missing for some time for the fear of going to school or because they were repeatedly failing in studies. “The only untraced case of a minor girl, who was in the habit of sleep-walking, might have boarded a wrong bus at the stand, where she had gone with her mother,” he said.

He further said the initial assumption of the police that the gang of four people, recently nabbed, was abducting children for the sale of their body organs, has also turned out to be false.

“Although the attempt to kidnap case still stands, the initial statement of the accused that they sold the minors to a doctor in Jalandhar was false.

It is believed they did this out of the fear of being beaten by a large crowd of villagers who had gathered after the child, whom they were trying to lift, raised an alarm,” said Mr Zaidi.

Mandi, September 22
Though the Shapur Congress MLA and former Tourism Minister Major Vijai Singh Mankotia, is trying hard to gather support to launch his broadside against the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Congress high command is learnt to have directed all ministers and Congress leaders to keep “the Mankotia issue and his bogey of regionalism in deep freeze till the Guler byelection next month.

Sources in the Congress told The Tribune that the party high command had issued directions to ministers and Congress MLAs to keep the Mankotia issue in the backburner, lest it harms the party prospectus in the Guler by-election.

“If the Congress wins the Guler seat, it will nullify the Mankotia’s charge that the Chief Minister has ignored Kangra district, says a senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity.

Everybody is mum as the son of the Kangra MP, Mr Chander Kumar, a pro-Virbhadra Congress leader, is making his political debut in the byelection. Sources close to Mr Virbhadra Singh say the party high command has taken serious view of Mr Mankotia’s allegations that the Congress has pushed the lower hill districts of Kangra, Hamirpur and Una to the bottom in terms of economic development, pointing at the recent axing at three ministers from Kangra district from the Cabinet.

What came as a shock for the Congress government was that Mr Mankotia, chose to toe the BJP line in this regard.

Though Congress ministers from Kangra, Mr Sat Mahajan from Nurpur and Mr Kuldeep Kumar from Una have countered Mr Mankotia’s charge, they have of late been avoiding a direct comment on Mr Mankotia’s tirade.

Ms Ambika Soni, in charge of the party affairs in Himachal Pradesh has said that the party high command was aware of Kangra interests and would make “suitable adjustments”. Her visit at the end of this month to Chamba, Lahaul Spiti and Kinnaur is significant as pro-Mankotia leaders, who have been marginalised in the district, may plead their case before her, says a Congress leader.

Even Mr Virbhadra Singh has been avoiding a comment on Mr Mankotia’s outbursts.

Shimla, September 22
In a bid to pacify agitated private transporters, Mr G.S. Bali, Transport Minister, yesterday announced that the decision to increase permit fee and special permission fee would be reviewed and the entire taxation scheme remodelled.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the hike effected was minimal and the government had, while carrying out the exercise, invited objections from transporters. However, no objections were received. Now that the transporters had made a representation to the government, it had decided to review the matter in entirety.

He announced that pre-paid taxi service would he introduced in Shimla town shortly to save tourists from being fleeced. The service would benefit not only tourists, but also local people. It would be introduced in other tourist destinations in the state in the next phase.

Referring to the functioning of the state road transport corporation, he said steps taken by the government to improve efficiency and reduce expenses had started yielding results and the revenue had increased by Rs 4.39 crore from April 1 to September 19 over the last year. The expenditure had come down by Rs 7.38 crore during the period. The workshops of the corporation had started building bus bodies for states like Uttaranchal, which would enable it to make optimum use of the available infrastructure and manpower.

The tax barriers set up for collection of composite fee from vehicles of other states had yielded Rs 4.10 crore.

Mr Bali, who was recently given the Tourism portfolio, said the State Tourism Development Corporation would be revamped and all those posted in a particular tourist complex for a long time shifted.

There would be no large-scale disinvestment and 17 identified properties would be privatised selectively in a phased manner.

Shimla, September 22
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between the state government and the Rural Research
Foundation (RRF), Jaipur, for Collaborative Study Programme on Organic farming.

The MoU proposes to promote organic farming in the state through a systematic approach in view of suitable agro-ecological situation and low use of chemicals in agriculture sector.

The RRF helps in developing organic agriculture management practices including internal control system for the state and has well equipped laboratories to conduct testing of water, soil, agriculture produce food production and packing material as per accepted test procedures.

To start with 8 to 10 clusters would be taken up to introduce organic agriculture practices and about 500 farmers in each cluster would be enrolled under the organic agriculture programme.

The project will initially be taken up by the district rural development agency, Shimla.

Solan, September 22
A four-year-old girl, Aarti, died and two other children Gautam (18) and Parmod (7), were taken ill after they consumed food at their jhuggi in Malpur village in Nalagarh on Monday evening. The three children, who were fed rice and dal by their mother, complained of nausea and dysentery after consuming the food.

Brick-kiln labourer Trilochan Singh and all the family members, including his wife and three children, were admitted to the Community Health Centre, Nalagarh, with symptoms of nausea and dysentery the following morning. While the mother’s condition was normal, the two children were referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, after their condition worsened this morning. Trilochan, who was under the influence of liquor, did not take dinner that day. The police was inquiring into the matter.

Shimla, September 22
Mr V.S. Kokje, Governor, has underlined the need for encouraging cultural interaction to strengthen national unity.

Inaugurating an all-India cultural meet of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) here today, he said culture was the binding force which united people to build a strong nation. He said that in the ancient days the artists used to perform according to the wishes of the rulers but today institutions like the BSNL were organising such events.

Kangra, September 22
The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education today declared the results of the plus II supplementary examination of humanities, commerce and vocational group conducted by the board this month. The results are available on the website of the board.
— OC